quote:
Originally posted by jowe01:
Tell me, in the weaker strategy games you know, would the AIs not often win if you gave them three or four times the normal production ? I am looking to be challenged by the AI's campaigns, not to be squeezed by sheer weight of numbers.
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Ever play an RTS scenario? Most of them operate with the "sheer weight of numbers" approach, giving AIs complete bases, significant forces and often most of the map at the beginning of a level. Others, such as Civilization-type games, rely primarily on cheating at all levels from production bonuses to a "penalize the tech leader" cost model to making AIs handle diplomacy with people in a far more one-sided model (getting angrier faster, making idiotic demands and then declaring war if you fail to bribe them every few turns). _Shogun:TW_ is another game that needs to blatantly discriminate against human players to pose much of a challenge to an experienced player, through such details as deficit spending, production and combat bonuses, and not-exactly-simultaneous moves.
Also compare and contrast complexity, customizability and detail with, say, traditional counter wargames ala TOAW:COW. The differences are obvious... and the computational cost and theoretical difficulty are incomparable.
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